Question of Suitability
by MissAnnThropic
Summary: Jacob catches Jack and Sam.


Title: Question of Suitability   
Author: MissAnnThropic   
Spoilers: post-Death Knell   
Summary: Jacob catches Jack and Sam.   
Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with Stargate but my rabid fan behavior. Alas.   
A/N: I apologize to all of you so bored that you decided to read this. I wasn't going to post it. It was crammed in my 'crap fanfic' folder of works that had failed to pass my own standards and hence was tucked away in shame. And yet it's here, you say. Sierra made me do it! Well, not so much made me as asked very kindly with just the right amount of pleading in her voice, and come on, she IS my best friend. We all have people to whom we cave, one of mine happens to be Sierra Phoenix. So when you're done with this blame me, but blame her, too.

* * *

Jacob Carter had a voice in his head, two if you counted his conscience, telling him to leave. He'd seen something he wasn't meant to, holy hannah did he know that much, but there was a morbidly sadistic part of him that wouldn't let his feet move.

'Want me to move them for you?' Selmac asked, decidedly testy. Oh yeah, she agreed with his better angel that he should be high-tailing with due haste, but god damnit it was his Sammie!

He didn't think she should even be here. Hell, he shouldn't be here, but one of the Tok'ra had to return to the decimated Alpha Site and gather up any of their surviving equipment and Jacob made the most sense.

Also, he'd suspected some people from the SGC might be there, doing the same recovery he was. He hadn't expected Sam to be there because her place was in the infirmary, but he wasn't going to pass up what might become fleeting moments of contact with fellow Earthers, a chance to pass on a message to his daughter.

Jacob had been surprised and concerned to find Sam among those at the Alpha Site recovery. She didn't look fit to be on her feet, still black and blue in all the wrong places from her scuffle with Anubis's super-soldier.

His attempts to convince her to go home and rest were dashed quickly and in the next second he was just glad he'd gotten to see his girl once more before he had to return to the Tok'ra for who knew how long. And, watching her move her weary and obviously sore body through her duties without complaint, he was proud of her. His Sam, the fighter.

Jacob had kept an eye on her just the same. And, he noticed, Colonel O'Neill was always within range, covertly keeping watch over her as well. Jacob didn't feel the same bristle of parental fire at Jack's attentiveness that the colonel's 'awareness' of his daughter usually spawned, because Sam needed all the eyes on her she could get. Jacob wasn't going to begrudge anyone looking out for Sam. The fact that Jack O'Neill was one person, often even more so than Jacob himself, that Sam LET mother-hen her made Jacob quite amenable to the colonel's behavior during the Alpha Site clean-up. Besides, it was Jack who'd saved Sam, and Jacob had not forgotten that.

Jacob had gone to bed that night, put up in a field tent courtesy of the SGC, still awash with relief that Sam was alive.

When he woke up the next morning he didn't have adequate excuse to stay any longer. He had to leave, but he wanted to see Sam one more time. He knew which was her tent, he'd seen her setting it up last night, with quiet help from Teal'c. Daniel had been cooking MRE dinners while Jack stood guard. It didn't matter they were surrounded by other SGC personnel, they habitually pulled together. SG-1 was like a wolf pack, intricately woven and tied together.

Jacob had risen with the planet's sun, making his way to Sam's tent in the sparse dawn light to say goodbye. He'd carefully pulled back the flap that served as an entrance, not wanting to disturb any of the other sleepers in the neighboring tents, imagining a quick duck into the tent then out after a short farewell.

Instead he'd looked inside the tent and froze. Fatherly ire rose in him, officer propriety railing, and yet something stilled him from doing anything more than staring.

Jack was in the tent with his little girl, and not just in the tent. Sam was lying on her side atop her sleeping bag, facing the door, legs comfortably bent, clad in her BDUs. She still looked bad, exhausted and sleeping the sleep of the wounded. She wasn't doing it alone. Jack was sleeping next to her, molded to her back, his arm possessively draped over Sam's waist while his other served as Sam's pillow.

'Leave them alone, Jacob,' Selmac chided again, but Jacob wasn't listening. Jack O'Neill with his baby girl. He should damn well know better, he was her CO.

Sam, eyes still resolutely shut, suddenly (though only fractionally) tensed, body stiffening and a crease of disquiet furrowing her brow. Jacob had seen his girl in the grip of enough nightmares as a child to recognize it on her face, and it took all his will-power not to go to her, to soothe her.

From the depths of subconsciousness, without a flutter of waking, Jack seemed to realize Sam's trouble, too. Reflexively his arm closed tighter around her, holding her, and Sam settled, troubled frown vanishing as she drifted back into peaceful sleep.

A tap on his shoulder made Jacob whirl, stunned to find himself looking into the sympathetic, mysterious face of Daniel Jackson. The archaeologist glanced in at his sleeping comrades (seeming none surprised at their condition) then beckoned with one hand for Jacob to follow him.

Jacob was a decorated general but he turned without a second thought and tagged along after the man young enough to be his son.

Daniel led Jacob to the remnants of the fire from last night, handing him a cup of cold coffee mix stirred into water. Jacob put it aside; only Daniel would be so desperate for caffeine that he would consider cold freeze-dried coffee palatable.

Daniel took a few sips, grimaced, then looked toward Jacob and said, "They're not together, at least, not in that way."

Jacob had the good grace not to look thrown, staying calm before he said, "They looked suspiciously familiar."

Daniel actually frowned in disappointment at Jacob, glanced down sadly at his cup and sighed. "Jack and Sam would never do anything to endanger their careers. They're both too devoted to the Air Force to give it up for anything..." Daniel mulled over a thought to himself, unhappy with the taste, then he looked over at Jacob. "You had to see it, Jacob."

Daniel was smart, Jacob had always known that, but he was beginning to understand that the archaeologist was smarter than even Jacob had given him credit for.

Jacob wasn't about to mince words. "I've seen Sam when she's with him... I could count on one hand the number of times since her mother died that another person was able to make her smile the way Jack does."

Daniel's mouth twitched in a half-smile, and Jacob was staggered by the old wisdom in the youthful face. Perhaps it was remnants of being an ascended being, but Jacob suspected Daniel Jackson was merely a genuine, old soul.

"Jack's the same way... I mean, Sam's so good for him."

"I'm her father, should you be saying any of this to me?"

Daniel sighed again. "I can because despite the fact I see it and you see it Jack and Sam are too professional to let themselves see it. Or if they do, they'll never do anything about it because the damn military..." Daniel only then seemed to remember he was speaking to an Air Force general. "Sorry, Jacob."

Jacob shook his head.

Daniel put his cup down on the sand between his feet, pensive. "They don't... this isn't a habit for them, this is just something that's cropped up after the super-soldier. Sam was really shaken up by what happened and... and having Jack around calmed her."

"She shouldn't even be out of bed," Jacob commented.

Daniel laughed. "Yeah, well, that's Sam. She wasn't sleeping, Jacob, and she was strung out by what happened. Jack helps her, and tell me you can argue with the results."

Jacob wanted to be aghast at the audacity of this 'pup', irate, but instead he was impressed by Daniel's strength. He hid behind academia so well, but when it was a humanitarian concern Daniel was as brave as any soldier Jacob had ever known.

"They could get in trouble, and I don't want to see Sam... or Jack, lose face or rank for what they are or are not doing."

Daniel looked toward Sam's tent. "They'd let something happen that got one of them killed before they broke regulations, they're both willing to live with that." Daniel huffed in annoyance.

"If they know they'll never... why don't they move on, find other people?"

Daniel turned suddenly warm and smiling eyes on Jacob Carter. There was an unsettling certainty to his presence. "They love each other. It always comes back to that, and believe me I've watched them spiral through some strange circuits, but they always end up where they are now... figuratively speaking."

"I don't want... I don't want Sam to waste her life waiting for a relationship with someone that might not ever be possible."

"You can't tell her to stop loving him, because she's probably tried to tell herself a thousand times, and Jack can't stop loving her just because he knows he shouldn't. He knows he can't have her, as much as she knows she can't have him... it makes me sick."

Jacob blinked.

Daniel shook his head bitterly. "When I lost Sha're I regretted every second I could have been with her when I wasn't, off reading some glyphs or even time I spent with the other Abydonians. I look at them and... damnit, they still have each other but they'll waste it all because they're officers. I don't understand the military, and I don't think I ever will. I'm not sure I'd ever want to understand that kind of logic."

Jacob could not believe what he was about to say. "They may be officers, but they might not always be in the same chain of command."

Daniel quirked a brow at Jacob.

Jacob sighed. "Cut it out, Daniel, okay? I might not like it, but you're right and I know it. But I'm her father, and even though I like Jack well enough, I don't think he's good enough for Sam."

Daniel took on an affronted, protective look at that and said evenly, "He'd sacrifice his life to see her happy, what more do you want for her?"

"Someone who could make her happy now."

Daniel lowered his eyes in silent concession.

"Jack's... Jack's been talking lately, just to me, so I don't know how serious he is, but... he's been talking about retiring again."

Jacob was taken aback to think of Jack O'Neill leaving the action. It was a course of action that he hadn't even imagined before Daniel said it.

Daniel was still speaking, "Jack's just as vital to the fight against the Goa'uld as Sam or Teal'c, when it comes to relations with the Asgard even more so since he's practically Thor's friend... he's afraid what leaving the SGC could mean for the safety of the planet, but he's still considering it, more as of late than in the past, and Sam's a big part of that even if Jack doesn't come out and say so. I know without him telling me that she's a huge part of the reason he's considering leaving. He knows the danger and he still might pick Sam over the entire planet. He's considering giving up gate travel for her, in essence giving up the galaxy, and if you ask me that's more than enough to make him 'good enough' for her."

Jacob recognized a fight he could not win. As Sam's father his standards were sky-high, but Daniel saw the best friend and hero that was in Jack O'Neill. The man of integrity and valor that Jacob knew exemplified Jack even if he resisted acknowledging it at times such as this. Jacob could never persuade Daniel to see Jack as a human being shy of worthy of anything. Even Sam. Probably least of all Sam. Daniel saw the faults Jacob down-played in his daughter even as the young man saw Sam's virtues with an objectivity a father never could. Daniel saw all the things Jacob couldn't or wouldn't, and as a judge of humanity extant and ancient he judged them. In the eyes of Daniel Jackson, Jack and Sam were better off for knowing one another. He thought they belonged together when all was said and done.

The fact that that judgment came from Daniel of all people made Jacob hesitate to wonder if maybe he should give that man's assessment extra weight. Daniel knew people, he knew Sam Carter, knew Jack O'Neill even better. He would want nothing more than the best for both, and he sat there in the morning hours telling Jacob Carter that the best for each was the other.

Even if Jacob admitted Daniel could be right, it wouldn't change the harsh facts. Jack was her CO, and as long as he was they could never pursue a relationship. The Air Force flourished in making a complex, difficult personal dilemma very black and white. Jack Sam wrong.

"I think,"Jacob finally said in response to Daniel's impassioned comment, "that it doesn't matter, and it won't unless things at the SGC change. I don't think Jack is good enough for her; I'm her father and that's the nature of the beast. I want her to have the best, and even Jack would agree that he's not the best she could do."

Daniel's inscrutable expression was evidence enough of his displeasure with that assessment of Jack O'Neill. And its truth. Jack would confess in a heartbeat Sam could do so much better than him. It was the self-deprecating manner at the heart of Jack, past the bluster and bravado of a trained soldier.

"But I will say this," Jacob said. 'Begrudgingly,' Selmac observed with some unhappiness. "Sam could never find anyone, outside of me, who cared more about her safety and happiness than Jack."

"And that's not good enough?" Daniel challenged.

"I don't know, maybe it is. But if it was then it would mean Jack would never make a move, because he knows even if he left the Air Force there would always be something. Backlash when they got together after his retirement, rumors about unprofessional behavior all along whether there had been or not, everyday quibbles that crop up out of the smallest things and probably are ten-fold for those working at the SGC, the Pentagon and stargate program detractors in the senate, just _other people_. And he won't want that for her because she deserves better, and so..." Jacob gestured faintly.

Daniel read between the lines. "She'll never be with someone good enough, because the only person good enough would know to leave her be to do what's 'best for her'."

Jacob nodded sadly.

Daniel had no immediate return for that. His eventual words were somber and low-pitched. "I hope you're wrong."

Jacob slowly found himself agreeing, for his daughter's sake.

The two sat in shared silence drinking bad MRE coffee. From his vantage point at the fire, Jacob turned his head when he saw movement from the corner of his eye and witnessed Colonel O'Neill emerging from Sam's tent. She must be awake. Jack would not have left her in that state if she wasn't okay to be on her own. Not when she was hurt and frightened (even if Sam would confess to neither), not unless there was some pressing emergency. Jacob could admit that now, because Daniel had forced him to see what he refused to see before. It wasn't as hard to see as he'd thought it would be.

He wondered, briefly, exactly what his daughter saw when she looked at Jack. Jacob saw a comrade in arms, a fellow soldier competent beyond dispute, who'd earned the respect of many in his years of service. Surely someone he trusted, but a man with a streak of single-mindedness that could pigeon-hole him. Stubborn and irreverent, possessing of an inner darkness that Jacob worried could consume Jack and anyone near him if it broke its bonds. A person with a strange sense of humor, a quiet cavalier manner that masked a sharp tactician. A man of high intelligence with a killer 'poker face' of mediocrity. Someone who could become a machine of war with disquieting speed and ease. A childless father, a man of divorce, someone easily fifteen years older than Sam.

Sam had to see so much more than Jacob, or each thing in a different light, to love him.

"She thinks Jack can do better," Daniel said softly. Jacob didn't have to ask for specifics. Sam thought Jack could find a better person to be with than Samantha Carter.

Jacob smiled gently at his dawn companion. "On that, at least, I think we can both agree she's wrong."

Daniel did smile at that. It was unspoken agreement. The linguist looked back toward his friend and Jack saw he was being watched. The colonel gave as greeting to Daniel across the distance a half-nod and to Jacob a sloppy, half-ass salute. Without deigning to join them, Jack trudged through the camp to check the perimeter. The night watches had given no call of trouble, but Jack liked to see for himself.

"He might not be the best she can do," Daniel said resolutely, "but maybe he is the best for her."

'That,' Jacob thought quietly, 'is an important distinction. And maybe a correct one.'

Selmac's attitude toward Jacob all morning at last simmered when he finally hit upon something with which she completely agreed.

He had a lot to think about when he was back among the Tok'ra. Since he might be absent from his daughter's life for quite some time, he had to wonder what changes he might discover when he finally made it back to Earth. After this discussion with Daniel, he was almost certain there would be.

He began to think there was a good chance he might agree with them.

END


End file.
